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So How Old Do You Need To Be To Wear Black Panties?

so r kelly’s album,black panties,
dropped last week.
one of my favorite “robin hood” f-bi sent it to me for review.
i hadn’t listen to it as of yet,
but i was gonna get to it today at some point.
well another f-bi sent me this article that…well…

check this shit about r kelly’s sexual assault accusations from the village voice.
the person being interviewed is jim derogatis,
the reporter to receive the first alleged r kelly sex tape.the one you may/may not have watched.
well its kinda long,but i highlighted the good parts…

It has been nearly 15 years since music journalist Jim DeRogatis caught the story that has since defined his career, one that he wishes didn’t exist: R. Kelly’s sexual predation on teenage girls. DeRogatis, at that time the pop-music critic at the Chicago Sun-Times, was anonymously delivered the first of two videos he would receive depicting the pop star engaging in sexual acts with underage girls. Now the host of the syndicated public radio show Sound Opinions and a professor at Columbia College, DeRogatis, along with his former Sun-Times colleague Abdon Pallasch, didn’t just break the story, they did the only significant reporting on the accusations against Kelly, interviewing hundreds of people over the years, including dozens of young women whose lives DeRogatis says were ruined by the singer.

In this interview (which has been condensed significantly), DeRogatis speaks frankly and explicitly about the many disturbing charges against Kelly and says, ultimately, “The saddest fact I’ve learned is nobody matters less to our society than young black women.Nobody.”

Refresh our memories. How did this start for you?

Being a beat reporter, music critic at a Chicago daily, the Sun-Times, R. Kelly was a huge story for me, this guy who rose from not graduating from Kenwood Academy, singing at backyard barbecues and on the El, to suddenly selling millions of records. I interviewed him a number of times. Then TP2.com came out. I’d written a review that said the jarring thing about Kelly is that one moment he wants to be riding you and then next minute he’s on his knees, crying and praying to his dead mother in Heaven for forgiveness for his unnamed sins. It’s a little weird at times. It’s just an observation.

The next day at the Sun-Times, we got this anonymous fax — we didn’t know where it came from. It said: R. Kelly’s been under investigation for two years by the sex-crimes unit of the Chicago police. And I threw it on the corner of my desk. I thought, “player-hater.” Now, from the beginning, there were rumors that Kelly likes them young. And there’d been this Aaliyah thing — Vibe printed, without much commentary and no reporting, the marriage certificate. Kelly or someone had falsified her age as 18. There was that. So all this is floating in the air. This fax arrives and I think, “Oh, this is somebody playing with this.” But there was something that nagged at me as a reporter. There were specific names, specific dates, and those great, long Polish cop names. And you’re not going to make that crap up. So I went to the city desk and I asked, “What do we do with this?” They said, Abdon Pallasch is the courts reporter, why don’t you two look into it and see if there’s anything there? And it turns out there had been lawsuits that had been filed that had never been reported.

When you cover the courts in Chicago or any city, you go twice a day and you go through the bin of cases that have been filed and every once in a while Michael Jordan’s been sued or someone went bankrupt and it’s this sexy story and you pull it out. These suits had been filed at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Ain’t no reporter working at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and they flew under the radar. So we had these lawsuits that were explosive and we didn’t understand why nobody had reported them.

Explosive in what regard?

They were stomach-churning. The one young woman, who had been 14 or 15 when R. Kelly began a relationship with her, detailed in great length, in her affidavits, a sexual relationship that began at Kenwood Academy: He would go back in the early years of his success and go to Lina McLin’s gospel choir class. She’s a legend in Chicago, gospel royalty. He would go to her sophomore class and hook up with girls afterward and have sex with them. Sometimes buy them a pair of sneakers. Sometimes just letting them hang out in his presence in the recording studio. She detailed the sexual relationship that she was scarred by. It lasted about one and a half to two years, and then he dumped her and she slit her wrists, tried to kill herself. Other girls were involved. She recruited other girls. He picked up other girls and made them all have sex together. A level of specificity that was pretty disgusting.

Her lawsuit was hundreds of pages long, and Kelly countersued. The countersuit was, like, 10 pages long: “None of this is true!” We began our reporting. We knocked on a lot of doors. The lawsuits, the two that we had found initially, had been settled. Kelly had paid the women and their families money and the settlements were sealed by the court. But of course, the initial lawsuits remain part of the public record.

So her affidavit, this testimony — it’s all public record?

To this day, any reporter who so cares can go to Cook County and pull these records, so it drives me crazy, even with some of the eloquent reconsiderations we’ve seen of Kelly in recent days, that they keep saying “rumors” and “allegations”. Well, “allegations” is fair, OK. You’re protected as a reporter, any lawsuit that has been filed as fact. The contents of the lawsuit are protected. So these were not rumors. These were allegations made in court.

Do you think part of how it’s been handled and why it’s been under-reported is that music writers may not know how to deal with it in a journalistic sense?

Let’s start with the most mundane part. A lot of people who are critics are fans and don’t come with any academic background, with any journalistic background, research background. Now, nobody knows everything, and far be it from me to say you’ve got to be a journalist or you have to have studied critical theory in the academy. Part of what we do isjournalistic. Get the names right, get the dates right, get the facts right. Sometimes, on a very rare number of stories, there’s a deeper level of reporting required.

There’s another reason: People are squeamish. I think a lot of people don’t know how to do it, don’t care to do it, and it’s way too much work. It’s just kind of disgusting to have to write about this and bum everyone out when you just want to review a record.

You and I got into it over Twitter around Pitchfork, in part over the fact that you were saying, “If you are enjoying R. Kelly, you are effectively cosigning what this man has done.” At the time, I was being defensive, saying people can like what they like.

To be clear, I think Pitchfork was cosigning it. I think each and every one of us, as individual listeners and consumers of culture, has to come up with our own answer. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer. The thing that’s interesting to me is that Pitchfork is a journalistic and critical organ. They do journalism and they do criticism. And then when they are making money to present an act — that’s a cosign, that’s an endorsement. That’s not just writing about and covering it. They very much wanted R. Kelly as their cornerstone artist for the festival. I think it’s fair game to say: “Why, Pitchfork?”

I had purposely not listened to his music since the initial charges came out, and I saw these ninth- and 10th-grade girls interviewed on TV, talking about how he was in the parking lot of their school every day and everyone knew how come. That is what it took for me.

Part of our reporting was sitting with those girls, sitting with their families, seeing their scars on their wrists, hearing the emotion.

Some of our young critical peers, they’re 24 and all they know of Kelly’s past is some vague sense of scandal, because they were introduced to him as kids via Space Jam. A lot of your reporting on this is not online, it is not Google-able. Collective memory is that he “just” peed in a girl’s mouth.

To be fair, I teach 20-year-olds at Columbia. Ignorance is nothing to be ashamed of. Nobody knows everything. A lot of art, great art, is made by despicable people. James Brown beat his wife. People are always, “Why aren’t you upset about Led Zeppelin?” I got the Bonham three rings [tattooed] on my foot. Led Zeppelin diddisgusting things. I read Hammer of the Gods, I’m disgusted by the group sex with the shark. [Note: it was actually a red snapper! Still gross.] I have a couple of responses to that: I didn’t cover Led Zeppelin. If I was on the plane, like Cameron Crowe was, I would have written about those things if I saw them.

The art very rarely talks about these things. There are not pro-rape Led Zeppelin songs. There are not pro-wife-beating James Brown songs. I think in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, rock music, or pop culture people misbehaving and behaving badly sexually with young women, rare is the amount of evidence compiled against anyone apart from R. Kelly. Dozens of girls — not one, not two, dozens — with harrowing lawsuits. The videotapes — and not just one videotape, numerous videotapes. And not Tommy Lee/Pam Anderson, Kardashian fun video. You watch the video for which he was indicted and there is the disembodied look of the rape victim. He orders her to call him Daddy. He urinates in her mouth and instructs her at great length on how to position herself to receive his “gift.”It’s a rape that you’re watching.So we’re not talking about rock star misbehavior, which men or women can do. We’re talking about predatory behavior. Their lives were ruined. Read the lawsuits!

And there was a young woman who was pressured into an abortion?

That he paid for. There was a young woman that he picked up on the evening of her prom. The relationship lasted a year and a half or two years. Impregnated her, paid for her abortion, had his goons drive her. None of which she wanted. She sued him. The saddest fact I’ve learned is: Nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody. They have any complaint about the way they are treated: They are “bitches, hos, and gold-diggers,” plain and simple.Kelly never misbehaved with a single white girl who sued him or that we know of. Mark Anthony Neal, the African-American scholar, makes this point : one white girl in Winnetka and the story would have been different.

No, it was young black girls and all of them settled. They settled because they felt they could get no justice whatsoever. They didn’t have a chance.

And they learned that after putting these suits forth and having them get nowhere? Do you think they didn’t get traction because of the representation they had, or Kelly’s power? Were certain elements in concert with that?

I think it was a lot of things, including the fact that Kelly was fully capable of intimidating people. These girls feared for their lives. They feared for the safety of their families.And these people talked to me not because I’m super reporter — we rang a lot of doorbells on the South and West sides, and people were eager to talk about this guy, because they wanted him to stop!

Going back a little bit to our original question: You get this tape dropped in the mail …

Well, the tape came a year after we ran the first story. We ran this story and the world shrugged. Associated Press picks it up: “Chicago Sun-Times has reported a pattern of sexual predation of young women by Robert Kelly,” and everybody says, “Ah, well, OK.” Then one day I get this call that says: “Go to your mailbox. There’s this manila envelope with a videotape in it.”

We had gotten one videotape already after the first story, and we gave it to the police. When I say “we,” I mean a roomful of editors sitting around asking, “What is the right thing to do here? This would seem to be evidence of a felony, we should give it to police.” There was one tape, but the police could not determine the girl’s age. The forensic experts they had looking at it said judging by the soles of her feet, they could tell she was 13 or 14 at the time this tape was made, but we can’t identify who the woman is. Videotape No. 1.

There were tapes on the street. And I had heard of another video tape with a girl who was part of an ongoing relationship. This is the girl who was in the tape that was in the lawsuit.

And some 40 people testified that it was her?

Yeah. Coaches, best friend’s parents, pastor, half the family, grandmother, aunt — but the mother and father never testified, the girl never testified. When we wrote our story about the tape, the girl and mother and father took a six-month vacation to the south of France. We’d been to the house several times. We’d rung the doorbell.This was an aluminum-siding, lower-middle-class house on the South Side, with a station wagon which is 13 years old — you know what I mean? And now they’re in the south of France. And one time the dad got a credit as a bass player on an R. Kelly album. He didn’t play bass.

The situations are incredibly complicated, and sometimes there is an element of, “We’re gonna exploit this situation for our favor.” That doesn’t mean that it’s legal or it’s right or that girl wasn’t harmed. It tore that family apart.

How many people do you think you’ve interviewed? How many people came forward?

I think in the end there were two dozen women with various level of details. Obviously the women who were part of the hundreds of pages of lawsuits — hell of a lot of details. There were girls who just told one simple story, and there were a lot of girls who told stories that lasted hours which still make me sick to my stomach. It never was one girl on one tape.Or one girl and Aaliyah.

The other thing, the thing that people seem to not know: She was fresh out of eighth grade in this tape.

Fourteen or 15. That puts a perspective on it. She’s not sophisticated enough to know what her kinks are.

Let’s talk about what it is, aside from not just having reportorial chops, that might hold somebody back. I feel that a lot of younger journalists came up through blogs, not journalism school. They are fearful to write about it because they don’t know what they can say, what language they can use, if they can be sued for even acknowledging charges.

You may not know how to report, but you should know how to read. The Sun-Times was never sued for the hundreds of thousands of words that it wrote about R. Kelly. You cannot be sued for repeating anything that is in a lawsuit. You cannot be sued for repeating anything that was said during the six- or seven-week trial. It’s in his record, and then there’s Kelly’s own words. Then read [Kelly’s biography] Soulacoaster. It was not a pleasant experience for me to read Soulacoaster! But read it, and read what he says in his own book! Do your goddamn homework!

What are the other factors?

Here’s the most sinister. This deeply troubles me: There’s a very — I don’t know what the percentage is — some percentage of fans are liking Kelly’s music because they know. And that’s really troublesome to me. There is some sort of — and this is tied up to complicated questions of racism and sexism — there is some sort of vicarious thrill to seeing this guy play this character in these songs and knowing that it’s not just a character.

Songs like “Sexasaurus” kind of makes it novel. The ironic, jokey Trapped in the Closet series airs on the Independent Film Channel and features Will Oldham — that has these other hallmarks of “art” that read to a white, hipster, indie-rock audience, then, because we are not taking certain things seriously, we can choose not to take the lives of these young black women seriously.

It puts it in the realm of camp or kitsch. If you have an emotional reaction to a work of art and you use all your skills as a critic to back it up with evidence and context. That’s all we can ask of anybody. We’re all viewing art differently. The joy is in the conversation. Pitchfork is the premier critical organ in the United States for smart discussion of music, books, and artists, but it doesn’t have this discussion. The site reviews his records but doesn’t have the conversation about, “What does it say for us to like his music?”

I think, again, everybody has to individually answer. I can still listen to Led Zeppelin and take joy in Led Zeppelin or James Brown. I condemn the things they did. I’m not reminded constantly in the art, because the art is not about it. But if you’re listening to “I want to marry you, pussy,” and not realizing that he said that to Aaliyah, who was 14, and making an album he named Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number — I had Aaliyah’s mother cry on my shoulder and say her daughter’s life was ruined, Aaliyah’s life was never the same after that.That’s not an experience you’ve had. I’m not expecting you to feel the same way I do. But you can look at this body of evidence. “You” meaning everybody who cares.

You told me about the night after your critical review of R. Kelly’s performance at Pitchfork ran, one of these women called you at 2 a.m.

This happens a lot. If you are a good reporter, you are accessible to people and you cannot turn a story off. And that sucks! The number of times since I began this R. Kelly story that I was called in the middle of the night, was talking to someone on Christmas Eve or on New Year’s Day or Thanksgiving. … Yeah, I got a call from one of the women after the Pitchfork festival review. “I know we haven’t spoken in a long time,” and said thank you for still caring and thank you for writing this story, because nobody gives a shit.

It was a horrible day and a horrible couple of weeks when he was acquitted. The women I heard from who I’d interviewed, women I’d never interviewed who said, “I didn’t come forward, I never spoke to you before, I wish I had now that son of a bitch got off.” Jesus Christ. Rape-victim advocates — I don’t believe in God — they do God’s work. These young women who volunteer to be in the emergency room and sit with a woman throughout the horrible process, I don’t do that. I’m not saying I’m even in the same universe. But somebody calls you up and says I want to talk about this, or thank you about writing this, or, “I can’t sleep because I’m haunted, can you hear what I want to tell you?” We do that as a human being. I would like to forget about this story. I’m not saying I’m super reporter. I’m saying this was a huge story. Where was everybody else?

There is a disregard for your ongoing concern about this. “Let this go, Jim. Get over it, Jim. He was acquitted.” You have never dropped this, and your peers are pissed because it puts the rest of us over a barrel. I can speak to this, too. It’s often uncool to be the person who gives a shit.

“You’re jealous of R. Kelly, you’re trying to make your name off his career.”

Because you would love nothing more than to have to report and carry these stories of rape.

Rapes, plural. It is on record. Rapes in the dozen. So stop hedging your words, and when you tell me what a brilliant ode to pussy Black Panties is, then realize that the next sentence should say: “This, from a man who has committed numerous rapes.” The guy was a monster! Just say it! We do have a justice system and he was acquitted. OK, fine. And these other women took the civil lawsuit route. He was tried on very narrow grounds. He was tried on a 29-minute, 36-second videotape. He was tried on trading child pornography. He was not tried for rape. He was acquitted of making child pornography. He’s never been tried in court for rape, but look at the statistics. The numbers of rapes that happened, the numbers of rapes that were reported, the numbers of rapes that make it to court and then the conviction rate. I mean, it comes down to something minuscule. He’s never had his day in court as a rapist. It’s 15 years in the past now, but this record exists. You have to make a choice, as a listener, if music matters to you as more than mere entertainment. And you and I have spent our entire lives with that conviction. This is not just entertainment, this is our lifeblood. This matters.

i am so blown away by that shit this morning.
it’s a shame because i like his music.
it has been background music in some of my life situations.i remember watching that tape for the first time.
i was like a teenager and my straight wolf friend’s brother had a copy. a group of us,home alone,and we were curious.
well we snuck and watched it and…

i remember telling everyone after that r kelly was wrong.
i also remember everyone telling me the little girl was fast.“she wanted it so whats the problem?”“she should have known better.”“r kelly is innocent and they just trying to bring this man down.”“look at how she was grindin’ in that video like she didn’t know what she doing.”“what does him fuckin this hoe have to do with his music?”
everyone was bashing her.smh.
i feel like black folks like to sweep this kind of shit under the rug.
i also feel some people like to trade their children for riches and fame.you don’t hear me tho.

lowkey:the entertainment industry has a another side…don’t be surprised your fav wasn’t a victim.…or even wanted itto happen.s’all im saying.

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I’m from the South Side of Chicago where R. Kelly was born and raised. He is like a God to many of us in the black community.

I grew up listening to R Kelly and I still listen to R Kelly’s music. I think he is a musical prodigy who also faced personal demons that many of us would condemn or even admonish if faced with the actual facts.

He DID in fact rape those girls (and Aaliyah) no question.

However, many of us were also raped as kids via media, personal relationships, or just life itself so its difficult for us to hold the mirror up.

Its also difficult to evaluate a situation like this due to the varying factors of celebrity, fame, money, power, sex, and voyuerism that exist within the story.

I feel sorry for the victims most of all.

R. Kelly has to live within his own demons and I’m sure its not easy being R Kelly despite his crimes, fame & fortune. I guess the real irony is that NO ONE sees R Kelly as a role model but he’s still considered a talented man. The duality of good vs evil.

^i loved this comment.
i heard so many rumors of r kelly trying to pick up young girls in chicago.
im kinda “um what?” to learn he wrote “age ain’t nothing but a number” for aaliyah (rip) and was having a sexual relationship with her at fifteen.
i feel her mom had to know something and at least allowed it.

its crazy how people use their fame to live out their fantasies.
no matter how vile or crazy they maybe.

I sent the album listen to you maybe couple weeks ago so you would have to waste money on the album to you email….Its really just overly sexual for no reason and i don’t know if you want to waste money on it…I know damn sure I didn’t.

Agreed. I love the r. kelly that sang about love and relationships. Songs like “When a Woman’s Fed Up” or “Turn Back the Hands of Time.” But when he goes into his superfreak mode I feel like he just comes off as a joke. I know a lot of people like those more freaky and overt songs, but I just think it just diminishes his talent. As far as the sex with underage girls, he needs help because he has a problem. Using his fame and money to basically defile these young girls is disgusting to me. I hold the families responsible too. I don’t care how much money he is paying out, he would pay for taking advantage of my 14 year old daughter. The girl is gonna look at her parents one day and ask why they didn’t stand up for her. Was the money worth more than what she went through?

Beyonce began dating Jay Z in 2001. She was around at least 19. When they made their first song together ‘Bonnie and Clyde ’03’ in 2002 they where a ful fledged couple.

Bey’s first love is not Jay Z. She dated a guy named Lindell (around her age) before Jay for several years. She wrote Dangerously In Love for Lindell before putting it on her debut solo album and claiming it as her and Jay’s anthem.

^damn.
must have been a blow to lindell’s ego.
i remember dangerously in love being on survivor with dc.
she didn’t change anything to the song when she put it on her solo.
i remember trying to tell the difference and nada.

C’mon Jamari, Beyonce was definitely legal when she met Jay lol. Beyonce was with Lyndell from 12 to 19, and both of them confirm that. Jay and Bey met in 2001 or 2002 when she was 20 or 21, so she was legal.

OMG not to deviate from the topic but totally forgot about Jay & Foxy.

He def smashed before she turned 18. I wonder how young Lil Kim or Da Brat were before they were turned out by the industry. Brandy admitted in her Behind The Music that she was smashing Wayne from Boyz II Men before she turned 18. All those young girls are turned out young when they enter Hollywood. Smh.

^hmmm good question about kim and brat.
kim’s issues stemmed from not being light enough for biggie.
he kept choosing all the light skin vixens over her.
she developed a complex over that.
brat always struck me as a lesbian.
ask her when she was turning females out?
lol!

^would never by that album s.
he got a song on there called,
“marry the pussy”.
i’ll listen to it when my body allows me too.
right now he is getting a huge side eye.
it’s like he made this album for hoodrats and one night stands.

R Kelly is somethin else. It is a shame. Y’all know he get down too right? Yea…he likes the niggas. Remember when his brother outed him back on “05”? I do not want none tho. Him and Pleasure P can keep their child molesting hands away from me.

I’m not surprised R. Kelly likes men, but I’m just hearing about the Pleasure P thing. I always thought he was kind of cute, but that is just gross. These dudes always talking about what they can do in bed and how many women they got, but then you gotta mess with little girls.

He molested several kids, boys and girls. Some of them were even his own family members. Of course he lies when he is asked about it. He wants a career. He is no R. Kelly, he couldn’t survive if the rumors were proved to be true. Remember, this was at the beginning of this career. There is a little truth to every story. That shit didn’t come from nowhere, and it is too extreme to be made up. R. Kelly was rumored to be one for years, and finally came out. I used to really like Pleasure and I thought he was cute. I was disappointed when I heard the news. I forgot about it when we talked about him awhile back.

you know its funny…
you gotta wonder how these celebs became so big?
did they get through by innocence or smut?
did their parents trade them for the lifestyle they have now?
lets look at the r&b singers and their alleged turn outs.

we know chris brown was messing with girls by 8 years old.
usher and alleged diddy.
i dunno about omarion too much,
but raz b allegedly was the favorite of chris s.
i don’t think trey songz dealt with any issues,
but from vixens i know,
he was corny as hell back in va.
always singing.
they said he messed with vixens,
but he was dusty as hell.
personally i think he is down with the foxhole,
but i think he will do anything to do be a star.
he will fuck whoever he needs to to keep that star bright.
lil wayne and his alleged romance with baby.
anyone else?

I ain’t even gonna lie, I give Trey a pass cause I like him, he’s cute, and has a nice body. I think he gets down, and probably does quite often. Women are blinded, but us gays aren’t. Man, I give props to any nigga that has hit that ass. Getting Trey would be like finding gold or striking oil in my backyard. He could have the worst ass, and I would still feel like I won lol.

IDK. I do think there is a trend with these celebrities who started young having some series issues. Often times the parents are so mesmerized by the thought of their children becoming rich and famous that they trust too many strangers around their child. Then these older “mentors” who the child looks up to can take advantage. I know parents can’t be everywhere at all times, but maybe if they were more present instead of getting caught up in the glamour, they could save their children from some of this abuse.

^quiet as kept,
some of these parents just “let it happen” and “turn the other cheek”.
as soon as their child is a hot mess,
they get up on tv weeping to the world.
there is a system to it.
plus it helps I know my fair share of pr.

This is some interesting shit that I’m reading.
Now I don’t feel bad that Paul the rapist passed away.
And Beyonce??? Well it would explain why she’s a little slow, maybe Jay Z manipulated her.
I don’t know why Lil Kim was obsessed with that Biggie man. No offense to the charcoal man, but he scare the hell out of me.

OMG EVERYONE READ THIS:
“1975: Sexual abuse of Kelly begins
In his autobiography, Kelly writes that starting at age 8, he sometimes watched older men and women having sex; that he once was given a Polaroid camera, instructed to photograph a couple having sex, and found that “the photographic technology impressed me more than the sex”; that at age 8 he was raped by an older woman, ordered to keep it a secret, and that “she did it repeatedly for years,” and that as a preteen he was approached sexually by an older man in the neighborhood. Friends and associates later tell The Chicago Sun-Times that Kelly said he was sexually abused by the man.”

This is very sad but this type of thing has been going on in the Black Entertainment Industry for years and I mean years. Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson all Legendary men of R&B all have messed with young underage girls, and dont let me start on Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis who not only messed around with underage girls but married them as well. The community has a few standards now with child laws and such, but back in the 50’s and 60’s no such laws existed concerning underage black youths and it seems that not much has changed in 50 years in this sick twisted business. R. Kelly is the only one who got caught out there, but he is far from the only one and there are alot of these twisted fuckers who are messing with underage boys as well not just the girls.

Back in the late 90’s before the internet became the beast that it is today. I read several reports that R. Kelly messed around with just as many boys and it was hush hush. Its so funny now that now that the internet has exploded no one talks about this anymore, but it was this dude named Chauncy who used to pour all the entertainment Tea before so many bloggers came along and he was the first to open my eyes to what all went on behind the scenes in the entertainment industry and this was 15years ago. It is so clear that Robert was a victim of molestation as a child and he is acting out. He reminds me of the late Marvin Gaye as he struggles with the spiritual and the secular and he can never make piece with either. I give him, he is a very complex and talented man, but he has many demons. Of course my people are the most forgiving and he never really crossed over to the pop realm for them to care about like Michael Jackson. I saw the tape and new he was wrong but I am guilty of still supporting and liking his music so I cant offer much in the way of totally condoning him. Children have no business in the entertainment industry period unless they are chaperoned by armed security 24/7.

S/N I learned something new in this thread, I guess I was the last to know, I did not know Jay-Z and Beyonce had been dating that long since 2001 days. Wow that is news to me, and I thought I was a up on all my Black gossip LOL. I heard rumors about them but I didnt think they started really dating until 2005 or so.

I read this article and i was amazed, ashamed, disgusted and intrigued all in one. R. Kelly is/was wrong. His fame, power, money and influence got him out of that case that is no question. Paying off all those people smh. If one of those girls was white, he would have been so far under the damn jail One sentence in particular struck me. The writer said “The saddest fact I’ve learned is: Nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody.” How sad and true is that statement? We have got to do better.

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